History of Elysia
"This once was a world of purity and splendor. An ice-clad jewel in the heavens, slowly nurtured into a paradise by beings older than Time." ''- Baltazar Turan Since the gods first came to Elysia, there have been three distinct ages following the events of the Sundering: the Rebirth, the Great Ascendancy, and the Age of Strife.The events of the current Campaign take place during the Fourth Age.This page explains the '''History of Elysia '''from its creation to the beginning of the First Age. '''Ancient History' The Old Gods The history of this world begins long before the races of Men, Elves, and Dwarfs first forged their empires. Epochs ago, the world was an ice-locked and desolate place - until the coming of the Old Gods. They looked upon the world from above, and they found it to be good. By their reckoning, this world would play an important part in the destiny of the universe. So it was that the Old Gods steered the planet's path towards the warming light of the sun, and began to reshape the lands of the world. They melded and wrought the substance of the planet until they had fashioned a utopia, which they dubbed Elysia. Lush vistas of dense jungle swathed the lands, and white-crested mountains soared through gossamer clouds to graze the heavens, their uncharted depths shot through with thick veins of precious metals. Rolling emerald plains stretched to the horizon and beyond, and oceans as blue as sapphires caressed the lands under endless turquoise skies. Once the Old Gods were satisfied with their molding of the land, they began to populate it with races of their own creation. The Time of Dragons At first, the world was inhabited by gigantic beasts - Turtles the size of islands, chasm-dwelling Marnocks, great Tarrasques, segmented deep-dwelling Leviathans, and even stranger monstrosities. Far from unthinking, many of these elder creatures had their own domains and ambitions, and began to war among each other for ascendancy. The ground shook to the clash of titanic monsters and, for a time, they ruled the lands of the world. Seeing the damage these creatures could do if left unchecked, the Old Gods decided it would be best to create a race of caretakers for this new and untamed world, to prevent the beasts they had made from destroying it. Thus came the birth of the Metallic Dragon Castes, created in the image of Bahamut. Intelligent and articulate, the race of Dragons were gifted the power of magic by the Old Gods, to help them in their subjugation of the elder creatures. In almost no time at all, the Dragons became the ascendant species, ruling over the other elder creations for a time, and preventing them from rampaging freely and destroying the jewel that was the Gods' creation. The New Races As time went on, so too did the temperature of the world rise. This drove the largest and oldest creatures, including the progenitors of each Dragon caste, deep into the earth, where it is said some still slumber. It was then that the Old Gods saw fit to begin creating more species in their own image. First among the new races were the Elves. Exceptionally dexterous and intelligent, the Elves quickly tamed the land with arrow and spear. The Elves also had an affinity for the natural magical energy left behind by the Dragon progenitors, and after learning the ancient language of Dragonkind, began to weave this magic into spells of their own. After the Elves came the Dwarfs, a doughty and stalwart folk, more resistant to raw arcane energy, yet able to use it to craft masterpieces imbued with supernatural power. Through this they eventually learned to spell-weave as well, but never so well as the Elves. However, the same qualities that made the Dwarfs determined survivors gave rise to stubbornness, avarice and insularity. Both the Dwarfs and Elves were long-lived and patient races. The Elves began to master the oceans, and built their elegant civilizations upon the coastlines and islands that lay off the shores of the main continent. Meanwhile the Dwarfs burrowed deep into the mountains, carving out magnificent subterranean halls and palaces. Finally came the race of Men; introduced far later than the first two races, they did not have the same longevity, but instead made up for it in other ways. Adaptable and prolific, men were so vital and ingenious that they were able to adjust to almost any environment and situation. They too learned the secrets of magic, although it took them some time, and their craftsmanship was notably poorer than both of the races before them. Nonetheless, the unquenchable spirit of humanity lead them to quickly become the most populous race in the world. For a time, the Old Gods allowed the new races to explore the world and create their own domains, while they experimented with creating sub-races, such as the Gnomes and Halflings. The mortals became aware of their creators, and worshiped them as the Deities. While marveling at their own creation... the Deities were unaware that their boundless ambition had a terrible cost. The Hungering Deep For untold millennia, the Gods in the Heavens have been at war with the Demons of the Abyss. Demons have always been drawn to magical energy of all kinds, as magic permeates and powers all things living. They feed upon it, going so far as to kill and devour each other to gain sustenance and power - leading to the Abyss' alternate name - the Realm of Chaos. The demons eventually grew powerful enough from each other to attack the planes of the Gods, and thus the two sides have fought since time untold. These conflicts had forever taken place between the Upper Planes and the Lower... but that changed with the creation of Elysia. The highest powers in the Abyss, the Chaos Gods, were aware of Elysia since the time the Gods began to shape it anew, but never attempted to intrude, as there was no large source of magical energy to feed upon. While the Dragons were gifted magic by the Old Gods, they were never so populous as to draw the attention of the demons either. However, the creation of the new races soon saw millions of creatures learning to shape and use magic, causing it to eventually become imbued into their very souls. Such vast amounts of pure energy shone like an irresistible beacon to the demons in the dark below, who saw the opportunity to gain such power that would allow them to successfully invade the Upper Planes, and they soon massed for an invasion of the Prime Material Plane. The Great Incursion Chaos Embodied Just as the world seemed stable, a critical mass was reached in the realm of Chaos that lay just behind the veil, unbeknownst to the mortal races. At each pole of the world, the land collapsed in an epoch-shattering implosion. It was replaced by portals to the Abyss the size of mountains. These portals erupting into existence created boiling seas of pure chaotic energy where reality and the other-world overlapped, vast gateways into the raw ether. Such was the force and magic behind the implosions that the land they shattered was imbued with pure arcane energy before being blasted into space, forming the ring of enchanted stones that surrounds Elysia to this day. These seas of energy began to engulf the world, and their raw power awoke the Dragon progenitors. With a tremendous feat of arcane might, the leaders of each Metallic Dragon Caste managed to limit the lesions in the fabric of the material realm. The souls of those that perished were claimed by Tiamat who, after eating her fill, corrupted the remaining dragons before releasing them back upon the world as the evil Chromatic Dragon castes. Only by the sacrifice of hundreds of first-generation Metallic Dragons was the utter destruction of the world averted. And yet, despite the best efforts of Elysia's most powerful race to constrain the cataclysm, a billion demons burst outward from the pulsing wounds at each crest of the world. Corruption Unchecked As the hordes of Chaos-spawn began flooding into more civilized parts of the world, the mortal races attempted to push them back, losing millions in the first weeksdfr of conflict alone. The otherworldly nature of demons was anathema to the creations of the Gods, and the longer they stayed on Elysia, the more horrid their forms became, as they embodied the fears and nightmares of mortals. The skies filled with blazing contrails left behind by the stones blasted into space, and miasma-filled rain hammered down across the surface of the globe. Even regions not directly affected by the taint from the portals soon began to feel the effects of Chaos, as the rain mutated everything it touched. The forests of the world thrashed with rampant and unnatural growth, and new and hideous forms of life sprang forth. Man became beast and beast became man, devolving into forms that reflected their crude subconscious minds. So it was that the lower races were born - Beastmen, Orcs, Trolls, and Ogres, to name a few. Alongside these came a new wave of monsters of unspeakable horror to the mortal races, and unthinkable nature even to the Deities. Across the world, the mortal races did not give up. Resolute, they banded together to take the fight to the demons. Elven mages worked with the remaining leaders of the Metallic Dragon Castes to fill the land with raw magical energy, such that the very earth itself became a hazardous barrier against the Chaos-spawn. The long war between the mortals and Demons had only just begun, for though many cities were lost in the first days, others stood, tenuous bastions of reason in a boiling ocean of madness and abomination. A Savior Sent As the war raged below, the Deities in the Upper Planes were caught in a struggle deciding how to save their world, and themselves, from the ravages of the demonic incursion. The longer the war went on, the more mortals were slain, serving to empower the demons further. It was during this time of blood and slaughter that Asmodeus stepped forward, offering to be the Gods' champion. Admodeus was renowned among the servants of the Gods for having spent millennia at the forefront of the conflict between the Upper Planes and the Abyss. There was to be no doubt that if he and his cohort of angels joined the fray, the battle could be won for the mortals. Seeing the desperation of the mortal races, the Gods granted him the privilege, and Asmodeus took up the mantle of defender of Elysia. Gifted with armaments from each of the higher Deities, Asmodeus and his angels proved deadlier than any weapon used before. He gathered the remainder of the seasoned Metallic Dragons and added them to his host, and they descended upon each demonic gate. The skies themselves came alive with their number, and the Demons were driven back in disarray before their wrath. Though Asmodeus undeniably saved Elysia, the Mortal Races, and the Deities from annihilation, it was not without great cost. The Price The fight to the first portal took a terrible toll on Asmodeus' armies, but they finally managed to make their way to the opening of the rift, where Asmodeus scattered the energy of the portal and sealed it in vaults around the world. Following the closing of the rift, Asmodeus and some of his fellows had begun to change, beginning to resemble the very demons they slew. This change happened slowly at first, and not become visibly apparent until the battle to close the second rift began. The further Asmodeus and his forces waded into the chaotic seas surrounding the portal, and the more demons they slew, the more they took on their foes' appearance. Asmodeus had no care of the cost however, simply wishing to prove himself to the Gods. He pushed his army forward, and the host took even more terrible losses. By the time they made it to the second rift, none of the Metallic Dragon Caste that had set out with the host remained, and only some thousands of angels were left, looking like horribly disfigured images out of a nightmare. Asmodeus scattered and sealed the energy of the second rift - his task was complete. The war had been won, but the world was forever changed by the taint of Chaos, and the angels were victims as well. Worse still, they had not yet learned the full extent of their fate. When the host attempted to return to the heavens, they found they could not. Creation of the Devils Betrayal of the Old Gods When Asmodeus contacted the Upper Planes, attempting to find out why he and his host could not return, he was met with a mixture of wariness and near hostility by the Deities. Asmodeus was told that while he had saved Elysia and the Upper Planes - he and his host could no longer be counted among their number. In being deemed the Gods' champion, Asmodeus had also become an unwitting sacrifice in a ploy by the Deities to keep their realms safe from future threats. In his sealing of the Chaos rifts, the former angel had imparted the energy from the armaments he had been given into both the Abyss and the Prime Material, causing barriers to be erected between the Lower, Middle, and Upper Planes - this was later to be known as the Divine Barrier. Both demons and gods could no longer set foot upon Elysia, and the Deities could only exert a trickle of the influence they once held over the world. To them, it was a hard sacrifice that had them all but abandoning their beloved creations, but one that had to be made. To Asmodeus, it was the ultimate betrayal. The Nine Hells With the Deities sealed away from the Prime Material, they could no longer direct the actions of the mortal races. Instead, they could only occasionally send help in different forms, which varied in strength depending on the belief of the individual in that Deity. As time went on, different groups of mortals began to worship specific gods instead of the Deities as a whole, choosing those who had values similar to their own. However, the larger part of mortals soon forgot that more than one or two deities even existed, and began to simply do whatever they wished. This led to a number of seals for the Divine Gate being discovered and nearly broken, which the Deities could not abide. It was then that Asmodeus, who with his host had been traveling the other non-divine planes for a home, approached the Deities with a plan to counter the mortals' dangerous curiosity. Asmodeus explained to them that their system did not work because it relied solely upon voluntary compliance. He explained that the only way to ensure obedience was to threaten mortals with a disincentive; hence, Asmodeus invented the concept of punishment. Asmodeus convinced the Deities to sign the Pact Primeval. This contract allowed Asmodeus and his followers to take up residence in their own plane, to punish the souls of wicked mortals, and to extract magical energy from the souls under their care in order to fuel their powers. Otherwise, Asmodeus reasoned, they would have to be granted the powers of godhood in order to do their job, which the Deities would not allow. The Deities found this arrangement to be fair, and thus the Nine Hells were created, and the host of Asmodeus became known as Devils. Eventually however, the Deities found that fewer mortal souls were ascending to the Upper Planes, and that Asmodeus was deliberately tempting mortals to damnation. Some of the Deities decided to confront Asmodeus and demand his reasoning for this. Upon their arrival, they found that it had been turned into a nightmarish world of endless suffering, and was now filled with countless new devils. When called to account for his actions, Asmodeus simply said "Read the fine print." The Age of Peace Soon after the Nine Hells came to be, those who came close to breaking the seals on the Divine Gate all perished or disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and the locations of the vaults that held the seals were lost. Time went on, and the mortal races did not soon forget the invasion by the demons. With the dragons gone, mortals soon expanded and took hold of the entirety of Elysia's single great continent. An era of prosperity began, as the races banded together to develop their magic and technology further, in case another cataclysm ever struck. A great pact was made, ensuring that no wars would be fought between the mortals unless absolutely necessary, and this peace lasted for hundreds if not thousands of years. But no peace lasts forever... Time of the Sundering Technology Advances Over two millennia after the end of the Great Incursion and the creation of the Nine Hells, the mortal races had all but forgotten what had transpired so many years before. Most people did not even overly concern themselves with the Deities anymore, and religions and their followers became a small minority of the populace. With the races having all worked together so many years before, new wonders had been discovered and invented - flying ships and personal portals, torches that lit without fire, and perhaps the most interesting of all - clockwork and steam power. But as more of these amazing ideas and inventions came to be, some saw potential in bending them towards different ends. With so much time having passed since the Great Incursion, it seemed as though some had forgotten the pact of peace and cooperation the mortal races had made long ago. Soon enough, implements of destruction began to be invented - metal catapults that could take down walls with just a few blasts, staves that shot compact molten balls of metal and flame, and airships that could rain death from the skies in the form of concentrated blasts of energy. The mortal races continued to develop these technologies, even as the Deities watched from above, horrified. Unbeknownst to the mortals at the time, this would lead to the greatest disaster in Elysia's history. A World Beleaguered As more implements of death were created, so too began more wars between kingdoms. Across the continent, rivers were plied by armored barges whose crenelations bristled with magic-infused weaponry, blasting away at their enemies. Miles-long columns of uniformed infantry wound and flowed along forest roads, eyes shifting left and right for signs of imminent battle. Genius engineers created ever more bizarre and devastating machinery of destruction, while mages prepared for arcane feats of searing potency. Weapons and spells were brought to bear that could tear apart hundreds of troops with a single blast, or wreak havoc and death upon cities with a single wave of a wand. Among all of the embattled kingdoms, two in particular began to win more conflicts, and envelop more enemies, until their kingdoms became nations of size beyond compare. In the east, a great empire headed by Elves had formed. Using their advanced knowledge and affinity for magic to weave spells of unprecedented destructive magnitude, this empire swept westward with the goal of conquering all of the Continent. They were surprised when they were met by a nation from the west of equal size and power, a coalition formed by Men and Dwarfs, who used their superior mastery of forging and technology to make up for their lack of magical aptitude. As these two powers prepared to meet in battle, they knew not that they were cultivating their own demise. Elysia Shattered None know for sure what happened when the two powers met in battle. Only one thing is certain - the resulting conflict tore Elysia asunder in what is known today only as the Sundering. The event shook the firmament with such force that its echoes still pervade, and perhaps always will. All semblance of life as it was known was blasted away in an instant as a screaming gale of raw magic enveloped the lands and all that dwelled within. Under storm-wracked skies, the continent broke apart, with the seas rising up to swallow entire cities. Fire rained from the skies, and the plains and forests burned. In moments, Elysia was changed forever. But it was not, as some had thought, the end of the world. A New Dawn Following the events of the Sundering, there were a number of changes. Foremost was the utter destruction of any previous form of civilization. The mortal races once again were reduced to humble beginnings. But as they began to form tribes and attempt to eke out a living among the new continents created by the shattering of the world, they were met with a number of new challenges. As civilization slowly rebuilt, so began the Rebirth, the first recorded era of post-Sundering history.